Share of children’s books featuring characters who fall into this category fell from 30% in 2022 to 17% in 2023, CLPE survey finds

There has been a “significant” drop in the presence of racially minoritised characters in children’s books, according to a new report.

A Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) survey found that the share of children’s books featuring characters who are racially minoritised fell from 30% in 2022 to 17% in 2023. “Racially minoritised” is a term CLPE uses to refer to individuals who “have been actively minoritised through social processes of power and domination, rather than just existing in distinct statistical minorities.”